Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a surgical operation support system on which a surgical instrument is mounted for use, and to a surgical instrument which is used for the surgical operation support system.
Description of Related Art
In recent years, in order to reduce invasiveness in surgical operations, robots have been introduced for studying medical treatment and in clinical field. Particularly, in the field of surgery, various medical manipulator systems (surgical operation support systems) which treat a patient by a multi-degrees-of-freedom manipulator including a multi-degrees-of-freedom arm have been suggested. In this medical manipulator system, various surgical instruments such as a gripper (a gripping portion) and forceps, or the like are mounted on the tip of the arm. These surgical instruments have been disposed. However, in recent years, by performing treatment such as sterilization, or the like, it has been possible to use the same surgical instruments more than once by mounting on the tip of the arm. However, these surgical instruments are members deteriorating as they are used more than once, and there is a possibility that the deterioration will cause problems in using the instruments. In order to prevent the problems, it is necessary to use the surgical instrument with the accurate ascertainment of the use limit (life) of the surgical instrument mounted on the tip of the arm.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,331,181 discloses a configuration in which the usage count or the like of a surgical instrument can be recorded by mounting a memory on the surgical instrument. In this configuration, when the surgical instrument is mounted on the arm, the usage count of the surgical instrument that is recorded in the memory can be read.